It´s too hot...

First (and possibly last, because the allotment-
sharing arrangement came to a premature end...)
apple leaves results (quite nice golden tinge
on silk, not much on cotton)...













Don´t really have the patience for that kind
of embroidery, but thought I try it nevertheless,
for a change, and to relax from the skintingling
aversion I feel for hot weather...


"They'll spend the summer
crushing the garden--
a steam let off slowly."

(Joshua Beckman: They´ll spend the summer)

Pink today, illusion tomorrow

Most of what leaves my hands is pink-spotted
still...
Here´s a glimpse into the nursery - new creatures
in the making (they will go into the shop on Friday)













And here´s a beauty with pink I found in an
antique shop across the street - it´ll become
my new button-box...

























Thanks to everyone who liked the idea of the
Pink Packs and ordered one (or even two...)
I´ve marked them as sold out in the shop while
I checked whether there was fabric for more -
and found enough to put together four more packs
- they will be available in the shop on Friday, too.

Dye try today: apple leaves...


"Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch
and believe in and that seems real for you today,
is going to be - like the reality of yesterday -
an illusion tomorrow."

(Luigi Pirandello, born June 28, 1867)

A pebble...

More Pink

Don´t know how, but I can repeat it...













Of course I had to try it again - and produced just
as fine a pink as last time, again with nothing than
a bit of avocado skin, water and an old pot...
It´s more than I can use - so I´m pleased to offer
a few Pink Packs in the shop.













They each contain about a dozen pieces of fabric,
some lace and a bit of embroidery thread...













And here´s a little meditation in beige and pink
(isn´t that a splendid combination...?!)
All pinks are from the avocado dye except the lilac
fluffy thing in the middle, that´s a bit of silk carrier
rod - and the scrap in the upper left corner, which
came from Jude´s compost I think...

Autumn ante portas...?

Or so it seems, judging from the colour scheme
of what I purchased at the Textile Art fair
yesterday...













Little mirrors to lighten things up a bit...













And that´s the entire booty...













There wasn´t much time to look around - but it
was good, I´m glad I participated. Met some wonderful
people, made some pleasant and promising connections
- and sold some goods, too...

Silent saturday...

We must if adhere (must we?)

I have been taking apart a sixpack of Mixed-
media-pieces I´d grouped that way back in April
and sew them instead in one row on a long strip
of fabric. Better...













And I´ve been packing up for the Textile Art .
Wish me stamina...

























"If a bird if
up into the air
if cold if

we must if adhere if
a road if renamed by
if each if traveling

more than one set
if of darkness no angel
no annunciation

deeper yet if
the singer's
voice if

borne if by grief
as if a bird
if on wings"

(Rosmarie Waldrop:
PRE + CON or Positions + Junctions 6)

Life is a Cabaret...

As a showcase for Creatures, I made this
rather rumpled papier maché stage...













Here with my old friend the Dukeling keeping
watch...

Look at that...

A surprise: all dyed with two slices of avocado skin...













And a pleasure, yesterday in the mail...













1000 Artisan Textiles - "Labyrinth" and two Calmers
being Numbers 0795, 0796, 0797...

1000 Artisan Textiles by Sandra Salamony & Gina Brown,
Quarry Books, 2010

New neckwear

I´ve been playing some more with my new loop turner -
glad I bought it (on the internet, of course - when
I asked for a Streifenwender in a big department
store they had never heard of such a thing...)
Here´s one of my recently loop-turned products...













It´s over 30 degrees here all of a sudden, which made
me think of Billie Holiday singing "like a summer with
a thousand Julys" - so I machine embroidered that
on the loop, and "you intoxicate my soul with your
eyes" (which definitely is a great line...) on
the heart - and now call the thing a Jazz Neckpiece -
a happy mix of textile necklace and light summer scarf -
it´s in the shop, together with some more new things...













The poetry scarf I showed here last week is in
the shop, too - and I made this one for myself...

Still...

... fond of thread people and splashes of red...

To loop the loop

Seeing this, I remembered the loop turner I had
bought a few weeks ago but never used...













So I made this necklace with - since I still enjoy
my bigger Still-crazy-heart - a small stuffed heart
with "still" on one side...













... and "crazy" on the other...













I like that - a heart can be still, it can be
crazy - and it can be still crazy (which in itself
might be a good presciption for stillness of heart
and peace of mind...)

Pots + people

When I saw this page in an old National Geographic
(showing pottery made between 1000 and 1150 AD...)
I liked the colours (much of what I´ve done
lately is in neutrals with some reddish/brown) -
and I liked the figures on the piece in the upper
left corner, especially their faces...













Inspired, I made this Calmer/brooch...
It´s a kind of variation on the people-machine-and
hand embroideries I made not long ago.













And here´s a Creature (in which last tuesday´s visit
to the Louise Bourgeois exhibition swings, obviously)...
























I´m making things to take to the Textile Art fair
at the moment (see sidebar) - but I´m going to put
some of it in the shop too next friday...

Potato-face

Sometimes I don´t even like them...
But what can you do, they just come out as they
please - here: a potato-faced prima ballerina...

























"year-worn
weary to the bone,
dancing in the dark with the
dark,
the Suicide Kid gone
gray.

ah, the swift summers
over and gone
forever!

is that death
stalking me
now?

no, it’s only my cat,
this
time."

(Charles Bukowski: 1990 special)

Poetry + the power of art

I´ve been wanting to make poetry-scarves
for quite a while - and now here is my first one...













It´s with a little poem of mine (Clouds sing/
almost touchable above a park bench/The vastness/
of a spring sky/is no less mysterious as deep sea/
All/ who raise their eyes above head level/could
see the fish jump - Wolken singen/zum Greifen nah
über der Parkbank/Die Weite/des Frühlingshimmels/
birgt Geheimnis wie tiefes Meer/Alle/die aufblicken
über Kopfniveau/könnten die Fische springen sehen)...













Me wearing it...

Also for a quite while I´ve wanted to see the
Louise Bourgeois/Hans Bellmer exhibition
Double Sexus, and last week finally arranged with
a friend to meet there today...













Louise Bourgeois passed away yesterday, as
most of you surely know already - so it was
with somewhat different awareness and interest
that I looked at her work...













They don´t permit photos, so I only took a hasty
one of this especially inspiring piece...


"Art is a guarantee of sanity. That is the most
important thing I have said."
(Louise Bourgeois)